[lbo-talk] More on Wikipedia: Now the US army is whitewashing myarticles

[Gar Lipow]

I'm not a critic of Chomksy - I admire him. But he is not being
sarcastic in acknowledging that there was a Cambodian genocide
committed. [ My view is that if the U.S. had not bombed Camboida to
hell, either Pol Pot would never have come to power, or his
organization would have had to go through the same transformation
Mao's communist party did -  become less ideological, more pragmatic -
an opposition that could rally deep popular support.] As it was, the
U.S. supported Lon Nol  government was so brutal, and the U.S.
bombings even more so that everyone was driven into the arms of Pol
Pot - including the Cambodian royal  family. They gained power without
ever having had to adapt their ideology to reality. IMO, that is the
root of the brutality behind the Cambodia genocide.  And the U.S.
can't escape it's responsibility for  this. But it is plain nuts to 
deny there was an internal genocide.  Chomsky does not deny this. At
one point he was extremely skeptical and did in fact expose a number
of false stories. But he acknowledges the fundamental truth of Pol Pot
as genocidal mass murderer. The following statement about the "gentle
and peaceful" are indeed sarcastic - and were not quoted by me, but by
you - which hardly leaves you in a position to accuse  me of not
understanding sarcasm.  Noam's main point of course is that a
comparable genocide took place  in East Timor at the same time
(comparable in percent of population, not absolute numbers.) And his
secondary point is the U.S. responsbility - though the emphasis in 
his analysis is of brutality breeding  brutality, whereas I think that
the brutality came as much from a  highly ideological group  coming to
power without having their brutality tempered by reality.

In this respect I don't think Hinton's analysis can be taken seriously
- I don't think there was something inherent in the Cambodian culture
that brought  this about.  And when one  of the factors he advances
are the lack of Christian influence in the culture ...

Lastly I will note that this post and  my previous one on this list
are the only times I have ever taken part in this debate. I spend a
lot more time analyzing and fighting U.S crimes. But when I saw some
damned idiot denying the Cambodian holocaust took place, I lost my
temper  and commented. I don't know why idiots on my side get my goat
more than the idiots on the other side.  I suppose I have expectation
that being a leftist means opposing genocide no matter who commits it
- as Noam does.

On 7/17/05, Chuck0 <chuck at mutualaid.org> wrote:
> Lance Murdoch wrote:
> 
> > Is he actually saying Cambodia was a gentle land of peaceful smiling
> > people prior to April 17, 1975?  No, he is being sarcastic, obviously.
> 
> I've always called this "Chomskyan sarcasm." If you read enough of his
> writing you should get the hang of this tone of voice. The problem is
> that some of his critics take everything Chomsky says literally.
> Whatever, they don't matter.
> 
> Chuck0
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

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